his hometown of chicago tomorrow. mitt romney will work the west and midwest with an early afternoon rally in nevada followed by another in iowa. after months of speeches, campaigning and debating, the two candidates continue to accuse one another of having no plan for the next four years. >> we haven't heard an agenda from the president. that's why his campaign is taking on water and our campaign is full speed ahead. >> i laid out a plan for jobs and middle class security. unlike mitt romney, i'm proud to talk about what's in my plan. >> reporter: the obama campaign plans to hand out a 20-page outline of the president's agenda to millions of voters in battleground states. the romney campaign continues to point to its website for his five-point plan. susan mcginnis, cbs news, washington. >> if you don't like either mitt romney or president obama in this election, a third party may be an op. candidates from the lib tear january, green, constitution and -- libertarian, green, constitution and justice departments are on the ballot

in most states. richard murdoch made some comment abouts abortion and rape during a debate last night which did not sit so well with g.o.p. leaders. the republican said when a woman gets pregnant as a result of rape, that it is, quote, something god intended. his opponent said he doesn't believe god would intend that to happen. murdoch later said that god doesn't contend rape but god controls life and only god has the right to take a life. mitt romney issued a statement saying he disagrees with his comments. one of the most watched races in our region as we've been telling you involves maryland's sixth congressional district. long time republican stronghold is now a whole lot bluer due to redistricting. this is what the district used to look like and this is what it looks like now. the new boundaries contain a large portion of western and northern montgomery county adding gaithersburg, germantown and potomac to the district.

registered democrats now outnumber republicans by more than 40,000. >> the changes mean district 6's long time republican congressman rosco bartlet is facing a real battle to keep his job. >> the man trying to take his seat is his democratic opponent john delaney. bruce leshan has more. >> reporter: rosco bartlet may be the only member of congress with the survival cabin in the west virginia woods. >> you're planning because the supermarket may not always be there. >> reporter: the ten-term congressman from frederick now finds his political future threatened. john delaney, a wealthy entrepreneur, a democrat with a big house just outside the district in potomac is running a well financed campaign to unseat bartlet. >> people can make things up with no bearing of the truth, completely false things, like rosco bartlet is saying about

me. >> delaney's company owned nursing homes where inspectors found mistreatment of seniors. >> reporter: bartlet, the republican, has tried to turn delaney's business background against him. >> what we're doing is quoting what areas have said. >> i'm actually very proud of what my companies have done, all the jobs we've created. >> reporter: bartlet has struggled with gaffes. he said federal student loans violate the constitution and suggested that that is the kind of thing that led to the holocaust. >> the only point i was making that if you ignore the constitution and do something good [ inaudible ] >> reporter: democrats have tried to tie bartlet to missouri candidate todd akin on the issue of abortions in rape cases. >> all i said was that they were -- that rapes were a relatively small percentage of pregnancies and therefore

abortions. >> he's voted historically that that exemption does not exist. >> reporter: it's probably bartlet's toughest race ever but he says he is confident he'll survive. >> we're pumping out of the a spring. >> reporter: bruce leshan, 9news now. >> in massachusetts, officials say they found unclean conditions at a pharmacy linked to a dedzly outbreak of -- deadly outbreak of meningitis. governor duval patrick says they're working to revoke licenses. the state of massachusetts has also begun a criminal investigation into the outbreak. the governor promises a crackdown on the facility. >> the pharmacy board will immediately start peered ontic, unannounced inspections -- peered ontic unannounced inspections of compounding pharmacies that prepared sterile injectable medications, such as those directly linked to the outbreak. these pharmacies will be insected -- inspected at least annually. >> the new england compounding

center says it's cooperating with investigators. more than 300 people across the country have become sick. 23 have died. a virginia woman who led police on a chase is in jail this morning. this was quite a chase yesterday and it went from walter reed national medical center into bethesda, into rockville. 27-year-old angela cobald of manassas was spotted making a u turn while stuck in traffic. the department department of defense officers approached and she was eating what appeared to be a bar of soap. when she saw them, she took off, hit a car. she eventually came back to walter reed and officers stopped her there. she refused to put down her window. he broke the rear window with his baton. she backed into his cruiser and took off again. she came across another officer, drove her car at him. that officer opened fire. she eventually crashed her car and was arrested. nobody was hurt when the gun was discharged. another woman has been

groped in falls church. police are trying to determine if it is the same person, a man who touched her responsible for five other similar incidents last month. the victim says she was pushing a stroller in the area of south maple avenue and gibson street last friday when a man came up from behind her and grabbed her rear end. at 4:36, here's a look at some other things making news now. the fiance of a murdered pregnant new york city woman is now being called a person of interest in her death. the two were supposed to get married on sunday despite the fact that the man is still married to another woman. a note was found next to vindalee smith's body. it said a pregnant woman would be murdered every month until disk sniper -- d.c. sniper lee boyd malvo was set free. jerry sandusky is now in a pennsylvania state prison. yesterday the convicted child molester was transferred from a jail to the prison. sandusky will now undergo an

assessment to determine which of the 25 male prisons in pennsylvania will house the former penn state assistant football coach. he'll stay there permanently. sandusky was convicted in june of sexually assaulted ten boys. he's been sentenced to at least 30 years behind bars. a new crew is its way to the international space station aboard a soyuz spacecraft. it's carrying one american and two russians. they're scheduled to rendezvous with the space station in two days. the launch was delayed by more than a week because of equipment problems. the astronauts are scheduled to remain on the international space station for about five months. 4:37. if you're just waking up still ahead today it's expected to be one of the warmest days of the week if not the warm e. temperatures near 80 -- warmest. temperatures near 80 degrees. howard is back with the forecast in two minutes. more of us are post moneying retirement -- postponing retirement. more on that at 4:41. >> oil production may soon be surpassing a key oil producer in the middle east. >> 9news now returns in two

minutes.

4:40 on this mild morning. temperatures running in the 50s and 60s. average high is 56. 79 by 3:00 with a high of 81. still 76 at 6:00 p.m. i'll be back in a few minutes talking about the rest of the week and strengthening sandy in the caribbean. right now over to monika samtani with timesaver traffic. >> on the northbound side of i- 95 overnight tractor-trailer accident pretty much blocks 95 at mile marker 138 south of courthouse road. the right shoulder is getting by with delays right now. you might want to get off at center port parkway to get around it. i'll have more details on that coming up at 4:47. andrea, mike? >> thank you, monika. it is time for the first your money segment of the

morning. >> jessica doyle is here. oh, boy, what a day. >> let's do the good news before the bad news. how about that? facebook surprised wall street with a better than expected profit report. sales jumped 32% largely because of gains in advertising on cell phones and other mobile devices. profits at next next better -- netflix better than expected but it will sign up fewer video screening subscribers this year than first thought. it was an ugly day before the two reports came out after the bell. it it was the stock market's worst day since june. the dow stands at 13,102 after tumbling 243 points yesterday. nasdaq was off by 26. the s&p 500 was down by 20 points. the federal reserve wraps up a two-day meeting this afternoon. analysts expect the fed to stick with their plan to buy mortgage bonds to help keep interest rates low and to boost the economy. u.s. oil output is surging so

fast, america could soon overtake saudi arabia as the world's biggest producer. energy expects say high oil prices and new drilling methods that allow companies to unlock oil trapped between rocks are two factors driving the production. one of the drilling methods is known as fracking and it's angered environmental is. the practice has been known to lead to contaminated ground water. people may be living longer, but they're also expected to work longer. a new survey by wells fargo finds 30% of middle class americans expect to work until they are 80 because they simply won't have enough money to retire comfortably. and this final story is just for mike. apple has unveiled the ipad mini. the screen just under 8 inches. that's about the same as amazon's kindle, google's version but it's more expensive than both of them. apple describes it as thin as a pencil and light as a pad of paper with ultrafast wireless service and ten hours of

battery life. it hits stores november 2. mike? >> it has a bigger camera and a bigger display. >> you can preorder it starting on friday just for you. >> that's funny. >> we know how much you love apple. >> thanks. >> you're welcome. >> you can borrow my old kindle. still ahead, 4:43, howard had his last big gulp -- no, just kidding. drunks like the big gulp could be the thing of the past if some d.c. council members have their way. >> more on that story plus your weather first featuring howard when we return in two minutes.

you may want to take a big gulp after you hear whatted highs are going -- what the highs are going to dab. >> we're not going to get the records. 84 is the record high today at national and dulles. 82 up at baltimore that was set back in 2001.

baltimore may get close. in the low 80s. not the mid-#s on there. we -- mid-80s there. we have some clouds around. if they hang out just a little bit longer with the low sun angle, that could cost us a couple degrees. either way a warm day for october. we start with the bus stop forecast. 50s and 60s with partly to mostly cloudy skies, light winds. you night be able to get away without a jacket. this afternoon more sun than this morning. we might see an isolated sprinkle or shower, especially in the mountains between now and let's say 9:00, 10:00 as a little system is coming across. more sun this afternoon. noontime temps 74. we get to 81 with a 4:00 p.m. temperature of 79. look how light and variable the winds are going to be, generally less than 5 miles an hour. that's also going to be good. what i'm concerned about as far as the moisture, a little bit of it here. it doesn't appear to be reaching the ground in eastern west virginia but in southern ohio approaching charleston, we

have the showers moving to the east, southeast. they're throwing high and mid- level cloudiness our way and could again maybe even reach the ground later here this morning south and west of town. 59 in leesburg this morning with 54 cumberland. even oakland, one of our warm spots in garrett county 61 with 59 in fredricksburg and 58 across the bay in beautiful cambridge, maryland. outside on our michael & son weather camera, all is quiet. good visibility. mostly cloudy skies with high clouds. temps sitting at 60 on the nose for this time of year. very mild. our normal low is 48 for this date. winds southwest light at 3 miles an hour. the barometer slowly falling. we have a frontal boundary up north so we're watching the showers up here. then this other piece of energy coming across the ohio valley, those are the showers we were looking at. i think that will come across here this morning with clouds and maybe, just maybe a shower but you'll see our future cast really does dry up the system as it comes across the mountains bringing a few clouds, especially to the mountains today but more sun

around here for the afternoon. then tomorrow we see more clouds and more of an easterly push. see how the clouds are coming off the ocean? that's a cooler flow. by friday may bring a little drizzle in the morning or shower in the afternoon. speaking about showers, we've got tony. don't worry about tony out in the eastern atlantic. sandy a real monster. look how the atmosphere is bubbling around here, boiling away. this is strengthening. the darker tops are the colder ones. this will hit jamaica likely as a hurricane late dear or this afternoon. just turned into a cuba. cross cuba as a hurricane. as it makes it the turn to the northeast or the west. the hurricane center wants to bring it toward bermuda. i'm still looking at computer models that bring it dangerously closer to the east coast early next week. we're not out of the woods. 81 today. tomorrow nice but not as warm.

friday low 70s. could be an isolated afternoon shower or morning drizzle. then the weekend lots of question marks. front gets closer. could have a shower saturday. sunday either the front around or the begins of sandy, 62. monday and tuesday colder. will it be dry or wet? it just depends on sandy. a low confidence forecast beyond saturday just because too many question marks still. the big story of the morning right now is this tractor-trailer jackknifed on the northbound side of i-95 down in stafford. let's go back to that. northbound 95 down in stafford. it is all blocked except for the right shoulder northbound as you approach courthouse road. right shoulder gets by. a jackknifed tractor-trailer leaking fuel. so it's a hazmat situation. what i suggest that you do is get off early at route 17 in falmouth or you could even get off at center port parkway to northbound route 1 and get back on to 95 from courthouse road. that's another way around it. but the closer you get to the

accident, the more delays you're going to face. maybe get off at route 17. let's take a live look right now and show what you it looks like. looks like traffic is still fine here. this is at route 17 northbound 95. let's go back over to our maps. you may have heard of another tractor-trailer mess over at the bay bridge westbound side that happened yesterday afternoon. right now everything is cleared up. you're good to go through the area. let's take a live look outside one more time, this time near the bay bridge. as you can see, traffic is moving well. i'll be back with more traffic coming up at 4:55. >> thank you, monika. thousands of medicare patients with severe chronic illnesses could continue to receive access to rehabilitation and other services under a proposed settlement to a class action lawsuit. currently patients must show improvement to keep receiving medicare coverage for physical and occupational therapy. that rules out people with chronic or progressive illnesses and those growing weaker because of age. a new study -- we've heard it before -- links lack of sleep to weight gain. researchers at penn state

university found sleep deprivation affects more honeys which are tied to increases in appetite. more than 35% of american adults are obese and more than 28% get less than six hours of sleep a night. this might help. researchers at ohio state are trying to figure out if a few injections will help you lose a few pounds. they injected capsules of heat generating cells into the stomachs of mice to boost their metabolism. the mice lost 20% of their body fat in 80 days. if the vaccine is developed for humans, it will probably be used strictly for those who can't exercise like the elderly. acupuncture can help with one of the side effects of radiation of head and neck cancers. a study shows that that ancient therapy can help relieve some of the symptoms of dry mouth. british researchers say dry mouth can affect a patient's quality of life. it interferes with taste and sleeping. about half a million people worldwide develop head and neck

cancer each year. crusty foods may make heart problems worse, especially if you have diabetes. researchers at the university of illinois found cooking methods which create a crust, like a crispy enon a ham -- on on a hamburger or corner after brownie are associated with plaque formation. the kind of plaque seen in cardiovascular disease in fact. health expects say it's better to limit fried foods. d.c. council members are considering implementing a ban on the sale of those huge sugary drinks. >> kristin fisher has more on the proposed ban. it's a similar one to the one already in place in new york city. >> just because new york did it doesn't mean we have to do it. >> reporter: just mentioning the word sugary drink ban is enough to set off this owner of a d.c. convenience store. how would this affect your business? >> hurt me big time. >> reporter: it's not a done deal, not even close. no action of any kind has been taken by the d.c. council. but according to wtop, during the recent at large debate, two

current council members said they would vote to ban the sale of large sugary drinks. new york city has already banned the sale of sugary drinks over 16 ounces. that's the size of 7-eleven's gulp, the smallest in the big gulp family. so in new york, the big gulp is already banned and don't even think about the whopping 64- ounce double gulp. >> i never even drink but half of the big gulp. it would be fine with me. >> reporter: supporters say a ban could help curb obesity and diabetes. >> well, i think that americans do need to watch their health and it costs the general public a lot of money for diabetes. >> reporter: but opponents call it overregulation. >> it's probably not going to accomplish very much because people will just go with the smaller drink size and buy more of them. i think you could do a lot more with education on this issue. >> i think with all of the other problems that we have in the district, poverty,

education, this seems to be a waste of time. >> reporter: in washington, kristin fisher, 9news now. >> according to wtop radio, three sitting council members have already said that they would support a ban. two others and the mayor said they would consider it. it is 4:54. time for the question of the morning. >> here we go. a new study suggests more smartphones are damaged here than anywhere else. is it a bathrooms, b, in the kitchen, or c in the car? >> log on to the wusa9 facebook fan page. leave your response. we'll reveal the answer during the 6:00 hour.

4:56. howard here with your weather first on this wednesday morning. pretty mild out there. we've got 50s and 60s. maybe a good day this afternoon to get out, take a walk and

check out some of the beautiful water areas we have, like the poe poe macand the anacostia -- potomac and the anacostia with a high of 81 degrees. looking good weather wise. but not traffic wise. on the northbound side of 95 coming out of stafford, all but the right shoulder is blocked. go ahead and take route 17 in falmouth to get around that. i'll have more details on that accident coming up at 5:01. back to you. the latest bond film gets the royal treatment. >> can't wait to see it. and a rock legend is now an author. edward lawrence has those stories and more in this look at entertainment. >> reporter: prince charles and his wife camilla walked the red carpet in london for the world premiere of the 23rd james bond film sky fall. danielle craig stars for a third time as super spy 007 and judy dench reprises her role as

his boss. in the film, bond's relationship with m gets put to the test as her past comes back to haunt her. skyfall comes 50 years after the release of the first james bond movie. woody allen was among the big names at the annual honors gala in new york city. it benefits a foundation for leukemia, cancer and aids research. >> the research will never end. there's no cure yet. we still got to keep the fight going and hopefully in our lifetime we'll see a cure. >> reporter: the annual bash raised more than $1 million for the charity. carol burnett is getting a big honor from her alma mater. hollywood high school's performing arts center announced it's naming an annual award after the 79-year-old funny woman. she will be the first recipient. other famous alumni of the high school include judy garland, mickey rooney, cher and lawrence fishburg. rock legend rod stewart signed copies of his new memoir at a manhattan bookstore.

the book takes an upbeat look back at the raspy voice singer's career and includes tidbits like he almost left one of his biggest hit maggie may off his album. that's your eye on entertainment, cbs news, hollywood. good morning. thank you for watching 9news now at 5:00 a.m. i'm andrea roane. >> i'm mike hydeck. i wonder if he talks about all his lives in that book. >> he said he didn't have that money. 50 women total. >> and he gets all of his wives back for holidays. they celebrate. >> he didn't -- [ multiple voices ] >> wow this took a dramatic turn turn. no jacket required today. >> exactly. another nice, warm october day. feeling line september out